Borders Not Recently Opened, Disregard Video – Customs

The Nigeria Customs Service has urged members of the public to disregard the purported viral video on the recent reopening of the border.

The Service, through the National Public Relations Officer, Chief Superintendent of Customs Abdullahi Maiwada, described the video as malicious to mislead Nigerians.

The National P.R.O. who made this disclosure during a populous Human Rights Radio Brekete Family Show in Abuja on Tuesday morning also urged Nigerians to always embrace authentic news, especially from the right channels.

“For over a year, Idroko and other selected approved borders are opened for legitimate trade. It is only the borders in the northeastern part of the country that are closed due to security issues. But major land borders in the South-West, North-West, and Ikang Border in the SouthSouth are all opened for legitimate trade,” he said.

Speaking further, the PRO said that the activities of the Service are critical to national development considering its pivotal roles in the area of revenue generation, suppressing smuggling and trade facilitation.

He stated that the Service, under the leadership of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) CFR, has recorded various accomplishments over the years in the area of revenue generation, restructuring and reforms.

“In the last couple of years, there were a lot of significant events that brought about a paradigm shift in the activities of the Nigeria Customs Service. First of all, we used to have a sixty-three-year-old law that was not in line with the reality of 21st Century Customs.

“Today we have a brand new law called Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023. A legal framework that will enhance our performance,” he stated.

According to him, even the process through which Nigeria Customs Service recruits personnel has changed with transparent processes based on federal character principles.

In the area of technology, CSC Maiwada said that the Service has succeeded in embracing a modern system in its processes and procedures, having realized the importance of automation – which according to him, has resulted in creating a new program called Fast-Track 2.0 for compliant traders, non-intrusive inspection among many other initiatives.